Too Lazy to Cook

I complain that Mr Minx and I have been eating too much poor-quality restaurant food recently but what do I do about it? Not a whole lot. I'm under a bit of stress so I don't much feel like cooking (although I do always feel like eating). However, on Friday we went to the Belvedere Market to pick up something for the grill. Ceriello's has such nice meat; we bought a pound and a half of sirloin steak and a pound each of sweet Italian and cheese sausages. Their deli counter offered up a pound of bowtie pasta salad with sundried tomatoes, peas, and proscuitto.

That was for Saturday. I was in a seafood mood on Friday. The first counter in the market outside the entrance to Ceriello's is Neopol Smokery, purveyors of smoked...well, just about everything. I am not a fan of cold-smoked salmon, but I do like the hot-smoked kind and Neopol offered it in several flavors. The Thai spiced variety seemed the most intriguing, so we purchased a bit of that. A bit farther along the market, Ikan sushi was tempting, particularly the fried oyster roll listed on the menu (yes, I know there is no "R" in May) but I didn't want rice and nori with my seafood. Instead, I got half a pound of the very nice-looking 16/20 shrimp from the adjoining seafood case. A loaf of country wheat bread from Atwater's was our last purchase before heading home to prepare dinner.

But first I precooked the sausage in a little water while Mr Minx marinated the sirloin with lots of garlic, soy, balsamic vinegar, and a little honey. Then I deveined but did not peel the shrimp. In a large sauté pan I heated up quite a bit of olive oil, then added a very large clove of garlic that had been squished with the garlic press. After a quick stir, I tossed in the shrimp, a handful of chopped scallion, and a bit of leftover grated lemon rind from an earlier cooking project. When the shrimp was opaque, I turned off the heat. Mr Minx had prepared large salads with mixed lettuces, avocado, celery, and tomato and served it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The shrimp went into a bowl, the bread sliced, the salmon plated, and we feasted.

I'm glad I left the shells on the shrimp - they taste shrimpier that way. Plus they don't shrink during cooking. The garlicky olive oil was perfect for dipping the bread. The salmon was unctuous and mildly smoked, although the Thai seasoning was a bit weird. Will definitely try a different variety next time.

On Saturday afternoon we fired up the grill at Dad's and cooked the sausages and steak. Pretty simple, and delicious. And it sure beat Pizzario Uno.

One would think that since I was sorta on a cooking roll that I would want to make something more substantial on Sunday. But I had some Web work to do and encountered uncooperative FTP sites which further stressed me. Thank goodness for leftovers! There was enough spaghetti and meatballs left from last Friday to more than feed the two of us; all I had to do was toss it all in a skillet and turn on the heat.

Hey, it was homemade. :)